14 Dey 1404
Quatrain 57 of 75
“Oh Thou who didst with Pitfall and with Gin
Beset the Road I was to wander in,
Thou wilt not with Predestination round
Enmesh me, and impute my Fall to Sin?”
Reflection · Winter 1404
The winter road is the hardest road of the year — the pitfalls most numerous or most visible against the snow. Thou wilt not — the will not is an interrogative refusal to accept the verdict. Not: Thou cannot. But: Thou wilt not, the moral argument. You will not do this unjust thing. You who set the road beset will not then blame me for the trapping.
In winter, when the traps are most apparent and the cold makes the enmeshment physical, this verse is both accusation and prayer. The person who set the road beset owes something to the person who walked it.